the goan I network
PANAJI
For the first time in Goa, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in collaboration with the Department of Information and Publicity (DIP) on Wednesday conducted a session for 30-odd transgender persons to make them aware of the voting process, and their right to vote.
Rahila Khan, an internal co-ordinator at Government Polytechnic, Altinho, speaking to The Goan on conclusion of the half-hour session said, “This is the first time we have called transgenders for an awareness camp. They tried to resist, thinking we just wanted them to vote and that we would forget about their issues after elections. But we explained that we wanted to make them aware of their equal rights.”
Their apprehension, said Khan, stemmed from the fact that some of them wanted to vote as the third gender to stay true to their identity. But some wanted to vote as either “Male” or “Female” as they did not want to face discrimination.
However, Khan said that there were benefits of voting as a third gender person, as the more number of third gender persons voted, the more the government would pay attention to this section of the electorate and affect policy change for them.
The Goan also caught up with some transgenders who attended the session.
Said Suzan, a transgender person who attended the training, “We felt very good that a training session was held for us. But lots of things came to light like the fact that many of us don’t have voting cards. This is the biggest problem. We have never made a voting card as we’re transgenders and politicians look at males and females as their vote bank,” said Suzan.
Chandni Singh from Calangute expressed enthusiasm that with the help of the authorities, she would now be able to make a voting card.
Unlike most others present though, Priyanka from Candolim told The Goan that she had voted many times before. But that she was thankful that for once, transgenders were given a platform to talk about voting.
Lal Beigh, the head of the NGO Ham Sath that works with transgenders said that there were 1,500 registered transgenders in South Goa, and 2,200 registered in North Goa. However, it was difficult to know how many of these were registered voters as not all had registered their genders as the third gender or “other.”
